Neil Cummins Posted August 30, 2019 Posted August 30, 2019 Hi Forum, Can anyone recommend a reasonably-priced ASIO compatible soundcard for the Dell Inspiron 5748 to give improved results over the stock RealTek device? Many Thanks Neil UK
Jack Stoner Posted August 30, 2019 Posted August 30, 2019 The 5748 is an Inspiron 15 laptop. There is no way to add an internal sound card. You will need a USB connected recording interface unit. I'm not a Focusrite fan but the UK company's products are popular so start there.
Jim Roseberry Posted August 30, 2019 Posted August 30, 2019 How many channels (and what type) of I/O do you need? Do you need mic preamp/s? What is "reasonably priced"? Meaning, what's your budget? Frankly, any dedicated audio interface with a proper ASIO driver is going to be an improvement. There's a lot of variation on cost, quality, and round-trip latency.
InstrEd Posted August 30, 2019 Posted August 30, 2019 As Jim said lots to choose from https://www.sweetwater.com/c695--USB_Audio_Interfaces
jesse g Posted August 30, 2019 Posted August 30, 2019 (edited) Be careful of getting GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) while undertaking this recording venture, It can become a real stinker!! ? You forum guys have got me stuck on this one...? Edited August 31, 2019 by jesse g 2
Øyvind Skald Posted August 31, 2019 Posted August 31, 2019 14 hours ago, jesse g said: Be careful of getting GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) while undertaking this recording venture, It can become a real stinker!! ? You forum guys have got me stuck on this one...? It is like Heroin addiction, you need a daily fix if your not carefool. And you do not write better song with better gear, the reason a mix is bad, is not because of bad gear ether. Because the best songs were not made with computer at all, and the best recording engeneers can make it sound good on any equipment. But latency is the issue to consider. And ASIO and USB soundcard is the only way to fix that on a laptop! So much easier to sing on while recording with just a little reverb on the vocals monitors and so on.
bitflipper Posted September 1, 2019 Posted September 1, 2019 Depends on what you mean by "improved results". If you mean better-sounding audio, then prepare for a big letdown after spending big bucks on an outboard interface. It's going to be only marginally better, if you can hear a difference at all. But if you mean more inputs and outputs, more and quieter amplification, real knobs, convenient jacks, better driver support, an effects loop, then an outboard interface is the way to go. Being in the UK, I'd suggest starting your search with Focusrite. Their stuff is relatively inexpensive, well-supported and reliable.
craigb Posted September 1, 2019 Posted September 1, 2019 In the old forum, some dipstick would have recommended a Sound Blaster by now. That's one improvement I'm good with! ? 1
bitflipper Posted September 1, 2019 Posted September 1, 2019 In the old forum, somebody would have created a similarly-titled thread full of off-topic nonsense observations. Good thing those people didn't come over to the new forum, eh?
Byron Dickens Posted September 1, 2019 Posted September 1, 2019 On 8/30/2019 at 4:25 AM, Neil Cummins said: Hi Forum, Can anyone recommend a reasonably-priced ASIO compatible soundcard for the Dell Inspiron 5748 to give improved results over the stock RealTek device? Many Thanks Neil UK Just about anything. Take your pick.
craigb Posted September 1, 2019 Posted September 1, 2019 3 hours ago, bitflipper said: In the old forum, somebody would have created a similarly-titled thread full of off-topic nonsense observations. Good thing those people didn't come over to the new forum, eh? In the old forum there was a sub-forum for actual technique and hardware questions.
Jack Stoner Posted September 1, 2019 Posted September 1, 2019 I agree the current variety of sound chips such as Realtek are very good and mostly have negated the use of an add on sound card such as SoundBlaster. In this particular case, as its a laptop and no provisions for add on cards, any "upgrade" would have to be a USB connected device.
Neil Cummins Posted September 2, 2019 Author Posted September 2, 2019 Many Thanks everyone,many more replies there than I expected...Third generation Scarlett Solo looking very tempting. Neil C. UK
bitflipper Posted September 2, 2019 Posted September 2, 2019 Now start saving up for better speakers...and thus the GAS begins.
InstrEd Posted September 2, 2019 Posted September 2, 2019 And it never ends................................................
bitflipper Posted September 3, 2019 Posted September 3, 2019 That would be a great name for a music software product, perhaps a multi-fx plugin, a do-everything sample library or an all-inclusive plugin collection. Agonizing over which reverb to buy? Try VallhallaGasX for instant relief! 1
craigb Posted September 3, 2019 Posted September 3, 2019 Reminds me of when I got this thinking it was some kind of Oriental reverb...
Jim Roseberry Posted September 3, 2019 Posted September 3, 2019 Noise-floor on a dedicated audio interface with external A/D D/A can be very significantly lower than onboard audio. ie: Realtek isn't going to get anywhere close to average noise-floor of -118dB. You may not notice a 12dB difference on a single track... but multiply that across 24 tracks of audio... and it's an appreciable difference. Like pulling a veil of noise off the project... Even dedicated audio interfaces that have A/D D/A inside the PC rarely achieve noise-floor better than ~104dB (usually closer to -100dB). 3
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